D&D 5E Would you require a roll for this?

[Oofta]

I'm going to be contrarian and say that yes, a roll is needed. The inner part of a gauntlet is not required to be heavy leather, it can be fairly thin. You don't need to add armor to the part of the armor that is never exposed to attack, and you want the person wearing the gauntlet to be able to firmly grasp and feel the sword. Heck, the inside of the gauntlet could be thin cloth for all that it matters to overall protection of the fighter. If a needle can reliably pierce skin, it can pierce the skin of a dead animal.

But the bigger issue is that if you allow this, there's no reason for the rogue to do anything. If the fighter had opened the chest and the needle trap had gone off, it they wouldn't have avoided the trap because of clever play or a good plan. They avoided it because they just make up on the spot that they were wearing heavy gloves.

Then again, I rarely use traps. I never use traps like this because the person triggering the trap can always claim they're using gloves or whatever. When I do use traps it has to be logical to the scenario and be something that would actually work. If the device has a needle trap, it will be delicate enough that you can't open it while wearing heavy gloves for example.

 

[Reynard]

this.

if player find a way to bypass a trap, let them.

That is why in every dungeon we carry one corpse with a rope attached.

two PCs throw the corpse down the hallway as far as the can and then drag it back to trigger any pressure plates.

Until the hungry scavengers appear. You chum the waters, you get the sharks in my game.

 

[Corinnguard]

this.

if player find a way to bypass a trap, let them.

That is why in every dungeon we carry one corpse with a rope attached.

two PCs throw the corpse down the hallway as far as the can and then drag it back to trigger any pressure plates.

Or if you are a necromancer, you animate a corpse and command it to walk down the hallway before you.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Traps for the most part are narrative story-points-- things that make the adventure interesting and which require the players to think about how to act and react inventively and improvisationally-- rather than just following a set of "game rules". As a result, anything the players come up with that make sense in the context of the story in reaction to what is presented in the story will be adjudicated based upon its natural common sense in the story.

In this case, the rogue player coming up with the idea of "To stop a needle from puncturing me, I'm going to wear a metal glove" is a wonderful and logical and common-sensical response... something that I would 100% encourage in all my players to come up with. And thus as DM I would never start trying to find reasons why this logical response doesn't work-- all in an effort to "gamify" the situation and require a die roll.

I prefer finding excuses NOT to roll dice for adjudication when possible. And if players can come up with arguments and ideas that make my responses occur, then I go with them and skip the dice.

 

[Shiroiken]

Typically a poison needle trap would be in the lock, and metal gauntlets wouldn't provide the necessary flexibility to pick the lock. If the poison needle just shoots out when the chest is opened, it could be opened without any check, since they could just hold the lid from a different spot.

 

[Andvari]

I'm going to be contrarian and say that yes, a roll is needed. The inner part of a gauntlet is not required to be heavy leather, it can be fairly thin. You don't need to add armor to the part of the armor that is never exposed to attack, and you want the person wearing the gauntlet to be able to firmly grasp and feel the sword. Heck, the inside of the gauntlet could be thin cloth for all that it matters to overall protection of the fighter. If a needle can reliably pierce skin, it can pierce the skin of a dead animal.

I'm assuming that in the given scenario, the needle is impacting on the plated part of the gauntlet. Otherwise I don't think the OP would ask.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Gives me an idea for a trap that releases a gas capable of animating the dead. The more who fall prey to it, the more dangerous it becomes.

That gave me an idea for a 'fun' gas trap. A gas trap in two stages: stage one gets fired off and exposes the party. Nothing happens. Wow, that could've been bad, wonder what that was all about.

A little further on, someone triggers stage two of the gas: something that sets off some weird psychological effects like the Confusion spell. Especially if in an enclosed area where only other party members are within reach.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Traps for the most part are narrative story-points-- things that make the adventure interesting and which require the players to think about how to act and react inventively and improvisationally-- rather than just following a set of "game rules". As a result, anything the players come up with that make sense in the context of the story in reaction to what is presented in the story will be adjudicated based upon its natural common sense in the story.

In this case, the rogue player coming up with the idea of "To stop a needle from puncturing me, I'm going to wear a metal glove" is a wonderful and logical and common-sensical response... something that I would 100% encourage in all my players to come up with. And thus as DM I would never start trying to find reasons why this logical response doesn't work-- all in an effort to "gamify" the situation and require a die roll.

I prefer finding excuses NOT to roll dice for adjudication when possible. And if players can come up with arguments and ideas that make my responses occur, then I go with them and skip the dice.

I like this.

I feel like there's a lot of ... feelings.. about Gygaxian dungeoncrawling, but I feel this is something that seemed to have come up in play in those games, which caused Gygax to get more clever and create new issues, which caused the players to get more clever, etc. Adversarial, yes, but... it's just the state of the art getting raised. That's how parties started carrying 10' poles and ear horns and assorted random nicknacks like chalk and marbles.

 

[Corinnguard]

That's how parties started carrying 10' poles and ear horns and assorted random nicknacks like chalk and marbles.

Which led to the trapmakers finding some really innovative ways to thwart such items. "Challenge accepted!"

 

[Corinnguard]

That gave me an idea for a 'fun' gas trap. A gas trap in two stages: stage one gets fired off and exposes the party. Nothing happens. Wow, that could've been bad, wonder what that was all about.

A little further on, someone triggers stage two of the gas: something that sets off some weird psychological effects like the Confusion spell. Especially if in an enclosed area where only other party members are within reach.

Or physical effects like the Enlarge/Reduce spell.